Day Three we wait and see

We thought that you might like to see what the Gopher looks like through all of this. Here is a picture of him will all his wires and his "face shield".

Here is a close up of his face. Be warned that he doesn't look much like himself. Nana said that if he were in a baby line-up she wouldn't be able to pick him out. The only thing that looks the same is his mouth. Everything else is just really swollen. But you can tell that his nose is so much smaller.


Day Three was much better than day two. We got a great night's sleep at the Ronald McDonald House and what a difference that makes. The Gopher was doing well in the morning. When we got there, the neurosurgery team was taking the bandages off his head. We didn't really want to see what his incision looked like. We had visions of Frankenstein will a giant puffy cut across his head. But when we looked, we were very surprised. On his right side you could hardly even see the incision. We thought they would shave his head at least to the middle, but they barely cut a strip. He still had hair in the front (kind of like Daddy's) and a bunch in the back (way more than Daddy). His swelling had gone down a little and was starting to open his left eye a teeny-tiny bit. They said that we could start feeding him some liquids, so we started with Pedialyte. He really liked that. I think his throat hurt from the tube and I'm sure his tummy hurt from no food in three days. After the juice and a good burp, the nurse decided to try cleaning him up a little. He had a lot of dried blood in his hair and ears. Since she only had one patient, she had time. So while we went to breakfast she cleaned him up a little. He took a great nap now that his tummy was full. He also started pooping and peeing more. They decided to take him off his IV fluids since he was drinking well. We spent the day watching his eye open a little more and actually get to see us for the first time in three days. He was a lot more active, kicking and moving his arms. He had a face shield with humidified room air that we call his dog collar (like the ones they use to keep them from scratching). It helped him keep his hands away from his nose too. The neurosurgeon came by and decided that he needed to spend one more night in the ICU just for observation. We got spoiled with our own nurse. In the ICU they have one nurse for every two patients. But Thursday night our roommate left and they didn't bring in anyone new. Friday evening they brought in a new patient, but for some reason he got his own nurse too. So the Gopher got one-on-one treatment for almost two days. He did really well all day drinking and even got a few jars of baby food. He made it through the whole day with only one dose of morphine in the early morning. We are so thankful for all your prayers. They are certainly working as he is doing so much better. Sorry that I didn't get to post yesterday. We didn't have internet access last night so I couldn't post anything. I will update for today, later this evening.